Essay, the Living Body of Philosophy

Abstract

The article presents the idea that the essay is the living body of philosophy. In the first place, it describes the hierarchical duality that, during Western tradition, gave spirit superiority over body. Second, it shows the consequence of this for the disregard of language, understood as the body of thought. Third, it points out the exception to this rule that would be the essay, in view of its treatment as form since the Renaissance, with Michel de Montaigne. Fourth, it points out how the main theories about the essay in the 20^th century conceived this form, with Georg Lukács, Walter Benjamin, Max Bense and Theodor Adorno. Finally, it is made clear that the idea of the essay as a living body of philosophy has its origins in Michel Foucault and in the attempt to think differently from the way one already thinks.